Power In The Blood
by Novelover7
Summary: 4 years into the future, a young girl's brother is abducted and injected with what she finds out is a power enabler solution, sending her to PASH, a secret society set up to help Heroes, where she unknowingly starts a war that's been a long time coming.
1. Chapter 1

"Z-a-n-e..." she waited... "S-c-h-a-k-o-w-s-k-y. And, uh his date of birth is May 18th, 1989."

A tall, blue-eyed police officer wrote the name and date down quickly, before looking back up at her for more information.

She stuttered, not exactly sure what kind of information would be required of her.

"Can you give me a physical description of your brother?" the police officer supplied.

"Uh-huh," she said dumbly. "He has, uh... platinum blonde hair, blue-grey eyes, kind of a baby face, I guess..."

The ominous, black radio on the side of his belt chirped and hissed as what sounded to Capri like someone speaking a foreign language scratched out of the speaker.

Officer Aycock ignored it and nodded to encourage her on. "Any tattoos, scars?"

"He has a kind of circular scar on his forearm, but it's not very prominent or anything."

He nodded and wrote it down. "Okay. Was he wearing any jewelry or glasses, etcetera?"

"His senior ring; It's silver, with a white stone. I don't know. He forgets it a lot."

"Okay and what was he wearing when you last saw him?"

Capri was suddenly extremely grateful for her almost flawless memory. "A black band shirt, dark jeans, a belt with silver studs on it. Black and white converse tennis-shoes?"

"No glasses or anything?"

"No."

"What was his hairstyle?"

Capri blew her lips out in speechlessness, making a sound like a horse. "Well, it's kind of... It's like stuck up to a point in the front, not a lot, just, like... he takes the sides of his hair and sticks them together at the top, with a little left over for like, casual bangs. I guess that's how you could explain it. And in the back, it's kind of...like..." Capri made a motion with her hands, and said, "like whispy, you know? Like he just sticks his brush back there and brushes outwards."

At this point, the cop was looking at her with a comically concerned expression on his face, and had stopped writing. Capri realized that the pressure of the day's events was starting to make her a little crazy.

Taking a brief moment to clear his head, he asked, "when and where did you last see him?"

"I dropped him off at school at about seven, I guess, and then at around one-thirty, when I came to pick him up-" with the lack of craziness, stress slowly morphed into unwanted emotion - her throat tightened and tears welled up in her eyes. "I waited for an hour and a half, thinking maybe he was in detention or something..." she stopped, realizing that the fact that her brother frequented detention wouldn't exactly look good on a missing persons report. "Anyway, he never showed up. So, I went home, hoping he maybe got a ride from a friend or something, but..." She trailed off.

"If he were to get a ride home, who would it be with?"

"Um. Maybe Brian Peterson or Greg Winehouse. They both go to school with him. He doesn't ride with them very much, though, and if he was going to, he would've called me to let me know." The tears began flowing freely now, and her voice was barely audible behind the lump in her throat.

"Who does he hang out with most? At school and after."

She sniffed. "Brian Peterson and Greg Winehouse. Oh, and Greg's girlfriend, Katrina Velasquez. They like to hang out in the Blockbuster parking lot." Capri let out a small laugh as she realized how funny that was. She reached behind her and took a tissue from the black end table beside her ugly, grey couch, and wiped black smudges of make-up stained tears off of her cheeks.

"Does he have any family that he might be staying with?"

"No."

"No one?"

"We're orphans," Capri said factually. "_I'm_ his legal guardian."

The officer nodded, apparently satisfied with the information he had. "Okay. What's going to happen now, Miss Schakowsky, is that I'm going to issue a BOLO, which is a Be On The Look Out, and register him into the NCIC to make sure we find him. We're going to do some more interviews with teachers, students and school staff, so don't worry; we'll do everything we can to find him." The officer smiled sympathetically and walked with long, professional strides to the door.

Capri, holding her arms close to her body, mechanically walked to the window to watch the black and white squad car drive away.

Outside, in the disturbingly cheerful Texas sunset, the day went on just as usual, sickeningly contrasted by the bleak, dead silence all around her now. She sat down on the ground, leaning her back against the couch, and placed her cheeks between her knees.

The air conditioner turned on, making the walls creak momentarily, before switching into an incessant hum. Capri's ears rang from the silence.

She stood up, wrapped her hooded sweatshirt tighter around her waist, and walked soundlessly down the hall, to the last room on the left. The door was slightly ajar, letting a faint, musty odor of youthful testosterone steal out into the hallway.

She pushed the door open and looked around. Clothes, papers, wrappers and other stranger articles of mess lie as if in suspended animation on the floor, lit by a melancholy gold light coming from the windows on the north and east sides of the room.

Capri placed her self-manicured fingers over her mouth, trying desperately to dam up the river of sobs that threatened to escape her mouth. How had this happened? Yesterday had been so normal!

_Everything had happened just like it always did. Capri had gotten off of work at Garrison's Pool World, and set her mind for a normal drive to her little brother's school._

_With the wind wafting in through the open window of the little blue car, Capri drove down Highway 534, blowing and licking her beach blonde hair off of her chap stick, and tossed her head to the side in a futile effort to get it out of her face, before finally just cranking the window up and turning on her moody air conditioner._

_She pulled into the parking lot of Tivy High School, scanning the clusters of antsy youths jumping and frolicking around cars that were generously decorated with flamboyant shoe-polish letters hoping to spot her brother, Zane._

_He was nowhere to be found, so she pulled into a parking space that had just been abandoned by a very large, red truck and turned off the ignition to wait. The keys, greatly outnumbered by gaudy key-chains swayed back and forth, catching the sunlight in flashes of metallic radiance._

_She looked down at her wrist watch impatiently and back at the doors of the big, tan brick building before deciding to push her seat down and take a small nap._

_Just as she was dozing off, a loud knock on the passenger's side window jolted her back to her senses. She sat up and clicked her tongue in annoyance at the source of her scare. _

_Zane waved innocently._

_Capri reached over and unlocked his door._

_He sighed as he squeezed into the front seat beside her, tossing his ridiculously full backpack into the backseat._

_"Did you have a nice day?"_

_"Yes, Mommy," he answered sardonically, "except you forgot my Fruit-Rollup again!"_

_"Don't be a jerk," she said good-humouredly, putting the car into reverse._

_The right side of his mouth turned up in a smirk before he reached over and began to crank his window down._

_"Zane! I have the air conditioner on!"_

_"It's blowing out heat again," he said, putting his hands up to one of the vents._

_Capri rolled her eyes and cranked hers down as well._

Capri gasped and jumped, slightly straining her neck from tensing her muscles, when the phone shattered the silence with cruel mercilessness. The sound of the first ring sat stagnant in her ears as she ran for the phone, before the second ring replaced it, only to be replaced itself by the croak of Capri's voice asking, "Hello?"

"What's wrong?" the smooth, male voice on the other line asked.

She stuttered. "How'd you know something was wrong?"

"You sound like you've been crying," he answered.

"Oh, Ben!" Capri started weeping uncontrollably, sinking despairingly into the dining room chair behind her. "Zane-" her voice caught tightly in her throat. "I don't know where he is! I drove around for almost three hours today! Looking for him! And then I-" she finished a sob "I called the cops and they cafinimether!" The last word was unintelligible as her voice climbed up into a squeak.

"I'm coming over, okay? I'll be there in just a few minutes."

"Okay. Please hurry! The house is so empty and I just..."

"I'll be right there. Just hold on."

Ben hung up, a horribly final sound to Capri, and she ran to the door to turn on the carport light, since it would probably be dark by the time he got there. She sat down on the couch, trying not to focus on the stillness of the house, sure of how embarrassed she would be from her neediness after all of this was over... if it would ever be over.

_The two siblings sat rather quietly through dinner, except for the clinking of Capri's dainty fork and the slurping of Zane sucking the spaghetti noodles into his mouth Lady And The Tramp style. _

_A large, orangish moth plinked stupidly against the light bulb above their heads, making the light sway back and forth slightly._

_"Anything interesting happen at school today, Z?" _

_"Mmm... nope. Not really. Well, actually, yeah."_

_Capri smiled with interest._

_"Greg won a burping contest in the halls. It was against Billy Martin, too. So, needless to say, it was pretty impressive." Zane took a purposeful bite of a large, red meatball, smirking sarcastically._

_Capri gave him a 'very funny' look, and cut _her_ meatball into a bite sized chunk._

_"What about you? Anything interesting happen in the work-world?"_

_"I had to fire someone," she said, raising her eyebrows and sighing._

_Zane chuckled. "Why?"_

_"Oh, he was abusing his employee discount."_

_"Oooh!" Zane said, waggling his fingers sardonically. _

_"Hey, listen, you really need to get your homework done tonight, okay? You have a test this Friday."_

_Zane's mood visibly changed. He clenched his jaw, and slumped a little lower in his chair. "You _do _realize that you're only five years older than me, right?"_

_"Well, I know, Zane, but _you_ have to realize that I'm the one that'll be paying for your college. I need to know you can do it."_

_His voice raised slightly, "Why don't you just save yourself the trouble and let me drop out of high school right now!"_

_"You're almost done, Zane! You just need to finish this one year!"_

_"For the second time!"_

_"Hey! There is no shame in doing a grade again."_

_"Yeah," he said with a sarcastic chuckle, "Tell that to the senior girls" He slowly began to stand up, gaining fury as he spoke."You know what, tell the guys, for that matter. Or, heck! Tell that to the teachers!"He slammed his hands upon the table._

_"Have the teachers been mistreating you, Zane?"_

_He sighed, making his bangs float up a little. He kicked his chair away from him, and walked around the table into the living room._

_As he turned down the hall to go to his room, Capri called after him, "Zane, wait."_

_He stopped, but didn't turn around._

_"No matter what they say to you, you're special! And smart, and unique and... and you have a bright future ahead of you!"_

_As sincere as Capri may have been trying to say it, the worry and disapproval hidden deep within her voice did not pass Zane unnoticed. He sighed, and walked down the hall to the last room on the left. _

_Capri sat silent, and jumped when she heard his bedroom door slam shut. _

Ben had come over very quickly, just as he said he would, carrying with him a bag of things he would need to spend the night, which he offered to do, to Capri's sheer gratitude.

After making them both a quick meal of macaroni and cheese, which sat drying and hardening without a single bite, Ben promptly but kindly sent Capri to bed, where she either lie awake, staring at the darkness above her bed, or sleeping in a thin, restless haze that seemed to drain energy rather than renew it.

Much to her surprise, she woke up at around noon, (she'd slept much longer than she thought she would be able to) and shuffled into the kitchen, where Ben was waiting with bacon and eggs.

"Oh, I hope it didn't get cold," Capri said as she watched Ben fill her plate.

"Oh, no. I just made it."

"How long have you been up?"

"Since eight."

"How'd you know to make it at this time?"

Ben waited for a moment, focusing on filling his own plate.

After a few seconds, Capri wondered if he was going to answer.

His jaw moved forward before he answered in an overly sweet way, "I was just about to come and get you." He looked up at her, flashing her an oddly purposeful smile.

"Oh. Yeah, sorry I slept so late."

"I'm glad you did. I mean, I'm glad you were able to."

She nodded.

The rest of the day went on in a torpid haze.

_The actual day of Zane's disappearance had, ironically, been a good one. Capri had gotten off of work early, and met Ben, who had gotten off at around the same time, for lunch at the mall. _

_The mall really wasn't much of a mall, being one floor and having roughly twenty stores, but Capri didn't have quite the imagination as Zane, who was content to hang out in an obscure parking lot. _

_Capri and Ben sat at one of the white plastic tables in front of the one restaurant in the whole mall, Capri facing the fountain and Ben facing the doors. _

_She watched a small family walk up to the broken fountain and sit down. The mother parked her stroller and set her diaper bag down._

_"There is _the _cutest baby sitting in the stroller over there." Capri said, pointing past Ben._

_"Yeah, I see her," he said with a mischievous look in his eye._

_"How could you? You're facing the wrong way?"_

_Ben smirked. "Haven't I told you? I have eyes in the back of my head."_

_Capri chuckled. "Prove it."_

_"Okay," Ben said, dramatically closing his eyes and massaging his temples. "The toddler just dropped its bottle."_

_Capri's jaw dropped."Okay," she said, suspiciously. "Keep going."_

_ Ben sat for a moment, squinting his already shut eyes. He tilted his head slightly, before saying, "The older kid is putting his hand in the water- oop! His mom slapped his hand. Now he's crying. The little one in the stroller dropped her bottle again, but the mom hasn't noticed, yet."_

_Capri sat awestricken, waiting to see what else Ben would magically see with his extra eyes._

_"Now the dad just showed up, complaining about the fact that he couldn't find what he needed in the sports store. The woman is wearing a charm bracelet and long earrings..." Ben started talking faster and faster, as if whatever he was seeing was becoming clearer as he went. "The little girl is hungry, and she's getting frustrated that she can't reach her bottle. She's about to cry."_

_Sure enough, a loud, piercing cry echoed through the mall, making Capri jump and Ben cover his ears urgently._

_Ben, broken out of his trance, looked back at Capri._

_ Capri sat silently for a moment, looking at Ben like a child who has just seen "the thumb trick". He smiled, suddenly aware of the fact that he may have been freaking her out._

_Capri looked behind her for a mirror._

_Ben laughed. "I was closing my eyes, remember?...Well, one set anyway." He winked and grinned._

_"Really, though, how'd you do that!" she said, slapping his forearm companionably._

_He took a sip of his grape soda and said, "The truth?" He looked at her seriously, judging whether or not she could be trusted._

_"Yeah. How..."_

_"The truth is, I paid them. I paid them all."_

_Capri hadn't realized she had been leaning forward until then. She slumped in her chair, disappointed, but laughing. "You paid the baby?"_

_"Yup," he chuckled._

_Capri gasped, "Oh, my gosh, look over there!" She pointed behind him._

_He turned around to look, and laughed when the warm grease of a French fry hit the back of his neck. He turned around and chuckled, taking a big bite out of the edible weapon._

_"What happened to those extra eyes?"_

_Ben grinned, a perfect, white smile, his eyes rich and sparkling. He tossed his wavy, dark hair out of his eyes and returned to eating his Doritos. He looked up. "What?" he asked, smiling pleasantly._

_"What what?"_

_He spun his finger beside his head, making the sign for crazy._

_Capri laughed, hoping desperately that the hot blush creeping up her face wasn't too obvious. _

"Capri, I was thinking maybe I should go and look for Zane."

"What?" Ben had said it so abruptly that Capri didn't even hear the first half of his sentence.

"I could find him." Something strange had come over Ben. He seemed suddenly very antsy, as if he was forgetting something that he needed to do.

She wasn't quite sure how to respond. She sat silently, angry and confused. "You could just... find him?" she finally said, bitterly. "And where would you start, Ben? You'd just _find _him?"

Ben's ears turned red, and he looked down unsurely. "You- you know yesterday..." Ben stopped, licked his lips and shook his head. "Never mind. I can't believe I just-" He sighed angrily. "I'm gonna go, okay? Will you be alright?"

Capri knew very well she would most certainly _not _be alright, but wasn't sure she wanted to be around Ben right now. She turned her head away from him, giving him a strange sort of left-handed permission.

He quickly got up from the couch, grabbed his keys, and without saying a word, left Capri in her grey solitude.

A few hours later, Capri's growling stomach woke her from her nap on the couch. She looked at her wrist, but found no glowing numbers of a watch. All she knew was that it was now quite dark. She stumbled to the kitchen, and looked at the microwave for the time: 9:57. How in the world had she slept so long?

She rubbed her face, and started dizzily walking toward the fridge. As she reached for the handle, she stopped quickly, turning on her heels, and holding her shirt at the stomach. Her heart thumped loudly in her ears, and her hair stood on end. Had she heard a sound?

Again, a rustling of cloth from the living room.

Capri stopped breathing. She lifted a foot gingerly, and began slowly creeping to the edge of the linoleum, up to the carpet of the living room. Her socks stuck against the fuzz of the carpet, and she could go no further; the springs of the couch creaked. Capri's stomach lurched as an unworldly figure sat up to be silhouetted in the street light outside the window.

Capri reached behind her toward the kitchen table, hoping some sort of weapon had been left there. As she did so, her hand slid underneath a pile of bills and letters and pushed them off of the table in a noisy flurry.

The figure seemed to look toward the noise slowly, and Capri could no longer contain her adrenaline. She jumped over to where the cordless phone was sitting, took it clumsily out of its cradle, and threw it at the figure's head.

In her frenzy, she missed, and hit the window beside where the figure sat, almost completely unperturbed. In almost the same second, however, she turned the dining room light on, and reached to the phone desk where she knew a pair of scissors would be laying.

The figure squinted, and shaded its eyes with its hand slowly.

"Who are you!?" Capri screamed, brandishing her scissors tightly.

"Capri?" a familiar voice asked.

Capri's heart slowed a little, and she lowered her scissors.

The figure slowly lowered its hand.

"Zane!" Capri said, melting into a mass of uncontrollable emotion. She dropped her scissors and ran shakily to sit beside him. She hugged his neck and cried, kissing his head in between incoherent affection.

Zane hardly responded at all, but for raising his hand slowly up to Capri's arm and patting it, and leaning his head down on her shoulder.

"Are you okay? What happened? Where were you?" Her facial expressions changed humorously fast, from relief to fear to anger back to relief again.

Suddenly Zane said in a groggy voice, "You're bleeding."

"What?"

Zane didn't answer, but Capri saw that his face and shirt was covered in bloody handprints. She looked at her hands and saw the source. Apparently, when she had grabbed the scissors from the table, she grabbed the wrong end, and had been holding it so tightly, that it had sliced her hand.

"Oh, my gosh, I didn't even feel it," Capri said, sniffing, and looking at it with a giant smile still stuck on her face. She got up and rinsed it in the sink, until she had a bit of control over the amount of blood coming out of the gory gash.

"Zane, where were you?" she said, once she trusted her voice. She put a paper towel on her hand, which immediately let the blood seep through, and hurried back to the living room.

"Is your hand okay?" he asked distantly. His eyes were half closed, and bloodshot. His skin was pale, and a light sweat was beginning to break over his forehead.

"Zane, don't worry about my hand!" she said, a bit annoyed now. "Are _you _okay?"

Zane shook his head to clear it, and slowly said, "What do you mean?"

"Zane, you were gone for almost two days!" Capri said, standing in alarm.

His brow wrinkled. "I was?"

"Lay down," Capri said, pushing him softly down into the couch's cushions. "I'm calling Ben." After trying desperately to remember what happened to the phone, Capri remembered and reached behind the couch before dialing Ben's number and waiting impatiently for the phone on the other end to stop ringing.

"Capri?" Ben asked at last.

"Ben, Zane came home, but I don't know what's wrong with him."

"I'll be right there."

Capri hung up and set the phone down on the couch, before running to get a blanket, wet rag, and a glass of water.

"Cold or warm water for your head?" she called from the bathroom.

He didn't answer.

"Zane, cold or warm water?" she said louder.

"W-w-w-warm," he said.

Capri placed the blanket, water bottle and still dry rag on the counter quickly and ran in to see why Zane was stuttering.

Still lying where Capri had laid him down, Zane had changed dramatically just in the few moments she was gone.

He was shivering violently, grinding his teeth to keep them from clicking together, huddled closely to himself for warmth, and yet he was covered in the shine of sweat.

"Oh, my gosh," Capri said under her breath. Suddenly, and not a moment too soon in Capri's mind, Ben's headlights glared seriously into the thin curtains.

Capri ran out to meet him, not wanting to waste a single moment. "Ben, I'm so scared. He's shivering and sweating, and he's not responding."

"Sounds like a fever." Ben ran quickly to the side of the couch and checked Zane's pulse. "How long has he been like this?"

"He's been slow to respond since he got- well, since I found him, but he started shaking a little after I called you."

"Get me a flashlight." He turned to Zane and said purposefully, "Zane, where were you? It's very important that you answer."

A small, airy sound passed between his lips, but he couldn't seem to focus long enough to answer fully.

When Capri returned with a small flashlight, Ben opened his eyelids and checked his pupils. "Slightly dilated and nonresponsive. I think he's been drugged," Ben said, as he stood up and reached for the phone.

Tears began to flow from Capri's eyes, and she lifted Zane's head so that it would rest on her lap. "Who are you calling?"

"I have a nurse friend," he answered, putting the phone up to his ear. After an excruciatingly long few seconds, Ben said, "Hello? Michelle? I have a friend who's been in a bad situation. Can you come over and help me out?

"Well, I know that, but I can't be sure. I need you to... No, I know. But, you know I wouldn't be asking if I didn't suspect."

Capri couldn't help but wonder what kind of nurse would be trying to get herself out of helping someone who needed medical attention.

"409 Mistletoe Drive. 'Kay." He hung up the phone and said, "She'll be here soon. She's from Fredericksburg, though, so it'll be a little while."

"Why can't we just call an ambulance?"

Ben looked at Capri seriously, and back down at Zane, who seemed to be getting worse. "Capri, I don't know how to explain to you why we can't do that, and I hope I won't ever have to, but you just have to trust me right now, and believe me."

Capri sat very still, except for Zane's shivering, looking searchingly into Ben's eyes. Was a year of knowing someone really enough time to know that you could trust them with your brother's life? Even if the person _was_ Ben.

Michelle, after arriving a little more than twenty minutes after Ben had called, turned out to be exceedingly strange. "Where is he?" she said, after coming into the house without knocking.

Ben pointed to the couch, where Capri stroked Zane's head as he lay now even more ill, although now more alert. "We've been giving him lots of water," he said.

The grey-eyed, pale woman, who, judging by her dishelved pajamas underneath her leather jacket, had been woken up by Ben's call, searched through a little black bag she had brought in and snapped two surgical gloves onto her hands. "Who is this?" she asked, pointing to Capri and looking at Ben.

"His sister, Capri."

Michelle searched Ben's eyes, and the two shared a strange moment of silent communication, before the woman looked back at Capri and asked her to move.

Capri gently sat up and moved around to the side of the couch, holding Zane's hand nervously.

"Uh- Could you not touch him at all, please?" Michelle asked.

Capri stared at her for a moment, before grudgingly letting go of her brother's hand.

Ben patted Capri on the shoulder, reassuring her of his faith in this strange, unsympathetic woman.

No amount of trust in Ben's opinion could contain her enraged skepticism as Michelle went to her work.

Michelle reached out and took one of Zane's hand in her own, and then put the other on the top of his head, toward the back, before closing her eyes with an expression of concentration.

Capri waited for a moment, hoping that this wasn't as strange and utterly useless as it looked. A few more seconds dragged on, and slowly, but surely, a strange expression stole its way across Michelle's face. She grew pale, and a light sweat broke out on her forehead. She seemed to be straining.

For a moment, everything was silent except for the increasingly heavy breath of both Zane and Michelle, before Capri could no longer sit by. She stood up, almost knocking the cream colored lamp off of the table behind her, and angrily said, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Shh! Capri, let her concentrate!" Ben said, grabbing her hand.

"Ben!" she responded, jerking her hand away. "My brother is laying here dying, and you think it's a good time to bring in this quack?! What is she supposed to be? Psychic?"

Ben had been trying his best to calm Capri down, following her around as she paced, shushing her without any success. "Capri, _please _listen!" Ben said, grabbing her by the wrists and holding her still. "She's not psychic. She's- she's-"

Suddenly, Michelle gasped, making all arguing cease, and let go of Zane's hand.

"Let me guess. Grandma is trying to talk to us through Zane, right?" Capri asked, putting her hands on her hips.

Michelle disregarded Capri entirely, only looking at Ben and nodding with a troubled darkness in her eyes. "Can I talk to you?" she asked quietly.

Suddenly Capri's confidence in the illegitimacy of Michelle's methods faltered. "What? What is it?"

Michelle stood up and led Ben over to the opposite wall. She looked over at Capri and turned her back to her before whispering urgently but almost inaudibly by Ben's ear.

Ben nodded and looked over at Zane thoughtfully.

"Ben! What _is _it?" Capri asked.

Ben walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Capri," he sighed, "I don't know what else to do but to tell you the truth."

Capri's stomach jumped out of fear, before falling heavily in the pit of her chest.

"Ben, are you sure?" Michelle asked from the corner. Surprise and fear filled her eyes.

"We have no choice."

Capri's breathing got harder and harder as a lump of anxiety expanded in her throat. "Ben, what is it?" Capri whispered.

"To explain what's happening to Zane, I'm going to have to go a lot farther back and explain some things, but he's fine for the time being, so we have time. You –uh, might want to sit down," he said, gesturing to the couch behind her.

Once Capri sat down, Ben took a big breath and added, "What I'm about to tell you, is highly secretive. If you were to leak _any _of this information, it could cost thousands of people their lives."

Capri nodded.

Never looking in her eyes, Ben licked his lips and began the most unbelievable story Capri had ever heard.


	2. Chapter 2

"When I was twelve years old, I was abducted in the middle of the night and taken to a large facility on the other side of the country, where about four hundred other people of all different ages, nationalities and backgrounds had been taken from their homes and collected like some rare insect specimen, put in separate, Plexiglas chambers and had a variety of unexplainable tests done on them." He spoke as if he had memorized what he was going to say.

Capri blinked, not sure how to react.

Ben continued, not allowing her to. "For three years, our lives were nothing but a series of strange tests; the effects of which I'm still not sure. Within those three years, with the help of several other captives there, I realized what criteria they were using to decide on who to kidnap." Ben paused, licking his lips and finally looking at Capri. "They were taking people with special abilities."

Capri's eyebrows lowered. "What do you mean?"

"Flight, telekinesis, telepathy, super strength." Ben's eyes began to become animated, and he spoke faster and faster as he went on. "People like me, and Michelle."

She looked over at Michelle, who was rubbing her forehead in apprehension.

Capri wasn't sure if she believed or understood what he was saying, but at any rate, all she cared about was Zane. Under the circumstances, Capri wasn't sure what question to ask first. Deciding on the most pressing, and most likely, the one she would most understand, she asked, "W- what does this have to do with Zane?"

"I'll get to that. Anyway, three years after I was taken there, a small group of those with the most exceptional abilities got together and began to organize a mass escape. With people with abilities like they had, and with the kind of technology Krauss had..."

"Or didn't have, more like," Michelle interjected.

"It wasn't difficult," Ben continued. "We destroyed almost everything; All of their records, their research, everything.

"In the end, we took over their facility, and are using it now as a base of operations. Two years later-" Ben shook his head. "Just _two years _later, Krauss was back on his feet."

"Wait- wait. Who's Krauss?"

"Krauss is the initiator of it all. No one knows much about him, except that he's obsessed with researching people like us. His...organization," Ben sneered, "is privately owned, funded purely out of his own pocket, and his paper trail is almost non-existent. N one but his victims and workers know about it."

"Why not tell someone about it?"

"Because no one knows where his new headquarters is. We're working on finding out, but it's slow going...even with the... recourses we have. We have no proof. "

"I _still _don't understand what this has to do with Zane."

"Since we destroyed everything of Krauss's, he had to start all over. Get new equipment, new workers... and new test subjects."

Capri's breath was stolen away. She looked over at her brother, who was now sleeping fitfully. She looked back at Ben for conformation, and he only nodded.

"But, why would he pick Zane? He doesn't have special abilities!"

"Are you sure? I mean," Ben laughed nervously, "You didn't know I had any."

Capri looked quickly at Ben, and subconsciously stepped back.

He frowned. "It's not a sickness, Capri," he said with surprising understanding, "We're not monsters."

She looked back at Michelle, suddenly feeling very trapped.

"What?" Michelle said, walking up behind Capri and pulling on a strand of her hair. "Afraid we're gonna contaminate you?"

Ben glared at Michelle. "You've known me all this time, Pree. I'm still me. I mean, I've always had it."

Capri looked deep into his eyes, a new wonder and awe surrounding his once so familiar face. "What... is... it?" she asked slowly. She couldn't believe this.

"What? My ability?"

She nodded, not sure she actually wanted to know.

Ben reached up to his hearing aid and took it out of his ear. After a moment, he suddenly started tapping his foot. "Bop-bop. Bop-bop. Bop-bop."

Capri looked at him as if he was crazy.

"Bop-bop-bop. Bop-bop-bop. Do you know what that is, Capri?" Ben said looking at her and smirking.

She shook her head.

His foot still tapping, he simply said, "It's your heartbeat."

"What?"

"It's your heartbeat. I can hear your heartbeat." His foot tapped faster as Capri's heartbeat quickened. "And this," he said, changing the beat to one much slower, "is Michelle's."

Capri looked awestricken. She turned around and looked at Michelle, who reached over, grabbed her hand and put it to her own chest.

He was dead-on. Michelle put her hand under Capri's chin and closed her open mouth, smiling.

Capri jerked her head away from Michelle's hand. "And what about you?" she asked, regaining some of her composure.

"I can tap into people's nerve system and feel what their feeling. That's how I knew what was wrong with Zane. There are certain places of pain that I can look for if I suspect Krauss's work."

Capri turned around to face Ben again. "Yes. What about Zane? What's going to happen to him now?"

He sighed worriedly. "There'll be no way to tell until he's out of this."

"Well, what happened to you?"

Michelle interjected, "this didn't happen to us. Our powers came naturally, like most people's do."

Capri couldn't help but laugh. "'Most people is _not_ what it used to be."

"People like us," Michelle said with an annoyed tilt of her head. "Anyway, I've never seen this happen. If Krauss _was _involved. We know that sometimes people react negatively to it, and we don't know the cause exactly, but have found that it only happens to people who are triggered artificially. What's happening to him is his body's reaction to the mutation it's going through. As long as the alteration wins over, he'll be fine."

"And if it doesn't?"

"He could go into what can only be explained as a form of anaphylactic shock." Michelle's factuality was sickening.

"I'm so sorry, Pree," Ben said taking a tentative step towards her.

"Is there anything we can do?" she asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Pray," she answered, a small amount of empathy in her voice.

About an hour of tense silence went by, Michelle placing her hands on Zane every now and then to check on him, Capri sitting silently staring at her hand, which Ben had disinfected and dressed. Ben busied himself with making coffee.

All of the sudden, Capri quietly ventured, "So... if... he makes it out of this," she looked at Michelle, who sat opposite her, slightly surprised Capri was talking, "what...power will he get?" It all sounded so strange coming from her mouth.

Michelle grinned a little, but Ben answered as he entered the room with steaming mugs for everyone. "Don't know." He sat down on the seat next to her. "Why?"

Capri shrugged. "I guess I want to be ready."

"What would you like him to get?" Michelle asked, clearly amused and intrigued by the chance to see people like herself through the eyes of someone normal.

Capri seemed indignant. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean," she shrugged. "I'd be lying if I didn't say I've thought about it myself."

Ben smirked. "Thought about what?"

"I've met plenty of people with abilities-"

Capri looked at Michelle with astonishment. How many were there?

"And I've gotta say I've been envious of a few. I mean, I'd much rather have flight, personally. That's what you want for Zane, Capri. That one's useful. "

Capri smiled uncomfortably. The nonchalance in this conversation was mind-boggling. As if they were talking about a new car or something.

Ben laughed. "So you'd trade your ability?"

"Well, haven't you at least thought about it? You know, wished that you got something different?"

Ben did a half scoff, half laugh and shook his head. "You have no idea."

"Oh. Right. Like your power is just awful. At least yours isn't painful."

"What do you mean?" Capri asked, rejoining the conversation.

Michelle's smile faded slightly.

"You mean that every time you... do what you do, you feel the same pain as the person you're doing it to?"

Michelle nodded.

"No matter how bad it is?"

"Well, it's not like I have some sort of fail-safe," she retorted sardonically.

"So when you-" She looked at Zane, who was sleeping much more peacefully, although his brow was slightly wrinkled.

Michelle nodded again.

Capri swallowed, feeling a new respect and guilt for depreciating Michelle's efforts. "Thank you. And... I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Michelle said with callous. "Who could blame you? How were you supposed to know?"

"No, I mean, I'm sorry you have to... do that."

Michelle nodded.

"At least you can turn yours off," Ben said.

"That's true," Michelle conceded, eager to distract the attention from herself. "It was awful until you got your hearing aid."

Capri looked at Ben, realizing she hadn't really thought about his hearing aid in a long time. When she first met him, she hadn't approached him to introduce herself as she did with her other coworkers, thinking he was deaf and wouldn't be able to talk to her, as silly as she later realized that was. When finally they found themselves in a situation where there was no other choice but to somehow communicate, Capri wrote her name down on a piece of paper, showed it to him and pointed to herself. Ben, having had this happen before, smiled and plainly said, "nice to meet you. My name's Ben." To which Capri abashedly apologized. Never again had his supposed handicap been brought up. In fact, upon hindsight, the very fact that it _hadn't_ come up again was a clue to its abnormality; Ben had never complained, or even hinted at the fact that he was hard of hearing. Every now and then, he would adjust it, but in times when it made no sense. In the park, at the mall- never when he might have need of hearing something more clearly.

"Why _do _you wear that?" Capri asked.

"Well, when I first got my ability, when I was about eleven, I wasn't able to control it. It started out with just being able to hear a lot at once and take it all in, but then I started being able to hear things really clearly, and then it just got so loud, that I couldn't stand it. My mom would try to talk to me, and I'd have to cover my ears. I couldn't sleep at night because the sound of blood running through my veins was so loud. That's about when Krauss came and got me." He laughed humorlessly. "I guess it was sort of a good thing. I don't know what I would have done. Anyway, after we escaped, the people most responsible for the escape put together an underground society called 'PASH'- Powered Assistance for the Super Human- to help those with special abilities."

"Wow," Capri sighed.

"Yeah! Wow! It's amazing, Capri," Ben said, his eyes filled with passion. "Anyone with an ability applies for help, and who better to help than others with abilities? It's- it's amazing how everyone uses their abilities to help each other. There's a complete datab-"

"Ben!" Michelle said suddenly, giving Ben a chilling look of warning.

Ben nodded, bringing himself back to reality.

Capri looked at Michelle for an explanation to her interruption, but she wouldn't look at her.

"Anyway," Ben continued, "they had this special hearing aid made for me. It basically does the opposite of what a normal hearing aid should do." He smiled. "I can still hear more than the average person, just not loudly."

"Wow."

"So see, yours _is _better than mine," Michelle said, steering the conversation back to its long-forgotten original point.

Ben and Capri laughed. "I don't know," he conceded.

Suddenly, Zane shifted and turned with a small moan.

Capri jumped up and went to his side, with a nauseating mixture of dread, fear and hope.

Michelle reached over Capri's head and put her hands on him. Slowly, a comforted smile graced her face.

That's when Capri realized, with another wave of nauseating emotion, that Zane was no longer sweating, and that his muscles had finally loosened. "He's going to be alright, isn't he?" she asked, although she could tell by the calm expressions on the faces around her what the answer was.

"Zane?" she asked, gently turning his head to face her.

His eyes opened slowly, and searched the faces crowded around him for a second, before, to everyone's relief, focusing on Capri, and groggily asking, "Why am I all wet?"

Capri laughed and hugged his neck.

"No, really. My clothes are soaked. What happened?" Zane sat up, albeit weakly, and looked questioningly at Michelle.

Since Capri was too overcome with emotion to do anything but cry and hug Zane, Michelle responded first with a question, "What's the last thing you remember, Zane?"

"Um, who _are _you?"

"Just answer the question, Zane," Ben said.

"Uhm... I was walking out to meet Capri, and...then I just woke up. I guess...I fell asleep?" Zane put his hand up to his head. "I've got a killer headache."

Ben got up and offered Zane a glass of water, which he gladly accepted.

Suddenly, Capri gasped and said, "I can call the police and tell them to call off the search!"

"You called the police?" Zane asked. "How long was I gone?"

"I told you. About two days."

Zane shook his head for clarity. "Two days!? Where was I?!"

Capri swallowed hard; nobody answered.

Michelle put her hand on Zane's head again.

Zane swiped it off and looked at Michelle with indignation. "Where was I!?"

Michelle looked over at Capri for help, but Capri just shook her head- not quite ready to explain all of the night's events to her brother. She simply said, "she's a nurse, Zane. Just let her."

He looked at Michelle dubiously, but allowed her to replace her hand. "Oh, yeah," she said. "He's doing great."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yes, hello. This is Capri Schakowsky. I recently filed a missing person's report for Zane Schakowsky. Yes. He's back. Um..." she looked over at them. "He... ran away. Yes. No, he's fine. Thank you so much. I'm really sorry. Thank you again." She hung up.

"Did I?" Zane asked with shock.

"What?"

"Run away? W-what happened!?"

"Zane," Capri said, kneeling down next to him and putting her hand on his. "You were kidnapped."

His eyes got wide. "Well, then why didn't you tell the cops? We need to get these people! What- They need to interview me or something."

"We can't," she said with defeat.

"And plus," Michelle added, "What could you tell them? You don't remember anything."

Zane looked down. "Will someone _please_ tell me what's going on?"

"He's bound to find out sooner or later," Michelle said, trying to stifle a smile. "I mean, you know, I think he'll notice."

Capri shifted uncomfortably.

"What do you mean? What does she mean? What'd they do to me? Capri!"

"Zane, I... don't know how-" Capri stopped short, as Ben covered her mouth with his hand and quickly said, "Shh!"

He took his hearing aid off violently and listened for a moment. He stood up and went to the door, putting his ear to it carefully. "Guys-" he said urgently, but was cut off as the lights. Even the one street light outside was dead.

A silence fell upon the group, as if waiting. Suddenly, Ben's voice broke the silence. "What the-" his voice was replaced by a strange click and hiss, a loud thump, and a small grunt.

"Ben?" Michelle asked worriedly as she stumbled through the dark to see what had happened. A strange, "Mmmmph!" and another hiss and thump silenced any further movement.

Capri's heart pounded loudly in her ears as thick stillness came over the room. She wondered fearfully if Ben was hearing it.

"Don't move," a deep, slightly hoarse voice said from somewhere in front of them. Although all of the lights were out, there was still enough light for Capri to see the outline of Zane's head, as well as some of the furniture, and yet she could not see even the form of the man talking.

Despite the order to be still, Capri's hand went instinctively to her brother's and squeezed painfully tight.

"Capri, over there. On the other couch," the voice said with calm blandness, as if trying not to put any inflection in his sentences.

_"How does he know my name?"_ she thought with panic, breathing in gasps when she realized she could hear the clicking of a gun being moved.She reluctantly obeyed, tears flowing down her cheeks to the point that her vision, as impaired as it already was, was blurry.

Zane watched Capri obey, looking blindly toward the two figures he could see quite clearly, despite the dark; There was a tall, muscular man with a back-pack, holding a gun at Capri, and there was also a short, skinny girl with long, wavy hair back in a pony-tail. She also held a gun, but the small amount of light from the moon outside seemed to be going through it- like it was made of glass of plastic.

"Zane?" Capri asked nervously, suddenly not being able to see the shape of her brother. She squealed, a sharp pain and the same strange click and hiss- almost a sizzle- brought her attention back to the attacker she could not see. Her eyesight faltered, and she felt extreme nausea, before falling unconscious to the ground.

Zane shouted, "Capri!" and went to move toward her, but stopped as an extremely strong hand grabbed his arm, and that odd gun was pushed flat onto his skin. He struggled, but stopped immediately when he felt the tip of the normal gun touch his neck. He breathed heavily through his nose, as his mouth was covered with tape, and his hands and feet tied by the small woman, who, oddly, kept her hand on the man at all times.

Zane pulled away, and another masculine hand held his jaw, rendering him immobile. A sharp prick, followed by an aching burst within the muscle surrounding his forearm, along with that alien pop and wet sigh, wrenched its way into his senses.

A strange, silent moment went by, the invader still holding him in place.

"What's wrong?" the man asked, showing his first signs of emotion.

"I don't know," a high-pitched woman's voice replied.

The same pain and sounds from the gun, which he now felt was definitely not metal, tightened his arm again, but his reaction was even less than before. There wasn't even any pain after the initial piercing of the needle.

"It's not working," the woman said with fear in her voice.

The man let go of him quickly. "Want me to just..." the rest of the sentence was visual, the man making a fist a bringing it down quickly.

Zane's eyes went wide as he understood what the man had intended to do. If they couldn't knock him out with drugs, they'd just knock him out!

The woman sighed and said, "I don't know. What else _can _we do?"

The man lifted up his fist over Zane's head, and Zane readied for a blow.

"Wait! Wait! Don't!" the woman said urgently. "He might get a concussion and we don't have authorization."

More silence.

"Here's what we do," she said decisively after a moment of thinking. Her voice was so small and young-sounding, the authority in her voice didn't really fit. "We blindfold him, and just bring him like this. When we get to a rendezvous point, we'll proceed on orders."

The man nodded with an unsure sigh.

There was a clinking of objects in a bag, and then complete darkness as Zane was blindfolded. He gasped as he felt a nauseous sensation, like the feeling of a fast elevator. He had been completely and effortlessly picked up by the man, and was being carried to the door.

Zane shouted as loud as he could, being muffled by the tape, and thrashed in the man's arms, seeming to have no effect on him.

"What do we do?" the man asked.

"Just put him in the back."

Zane was carried for about a mile in the night's darkness, for it seemed the entire neighborhood was dark, and then they turned down what felt like an alley, where the man's pace slowed, before he stopped completely, and the sound of a small car door opening was followed by Zane being easily thrown into the trunk of a car. The trunk was closed, and Zane was left alone in a claustrophobic haze. The doors to the car shut with a jolting thud, and the engine started.


	3. Chapter 3

Capri woke up to warbled voices and shifting lights.

"Look, she's waking up," a far off voice said.

Capri slowly brought her hand to her head. It felt like it was full of water.

"Capri?" a figure leaning over her said. Slowly, she was able to focus, and recognized the wavy, dark brown hair and slightly frizzy, auburn hair of Ben and Michelle. "Capri?" Ben repeated.

In a wave of terror, everything that had happened came back to her. She sat up and asked, "What happened!?" She immediately fell back down and closed her eyes.

"Okay, that was... much too fast," Michelle said with a slight chuckle, gently pushing Capri the rest of the way down.

"When?" Capri suddenly asked.

"When what?" Ben asked.

"When will I get my..." a tear rolled quickly down her cheek. "...power?"

Michelle burst out laughing, rolling backwards and holding her stomach.

Ben, however, kept quite straight-faced. "Michelle, stop," he said uncomfortably.

"What?" Capri asked, slightly offended.

"Oh! That's great!" Michelle laughed hysterically.

Despite Capri's anxiety, and possibly partly because of it, Michelle's laughter was contagious. "What?" she giggled.

"You're not going to get a power, Pri. They just knocked us out," Ben said with frightening sobriety.

"What's so bad about having a power, anyway?" Michelle asked, straightening up a bit.

"Michelle!" Ben said, giving her a look of warning.

Michelle's face got hot, and she clenched her jaw together, changing quickly.

"Capri," Ben said sadly, looking back into her eyes. "Zane's gone."

Despite the periodic bumps in the road that threw him up into the ceiling of the trunk and then back down again, Zane had actually fallen asleep. He wasn't sure how long he _had _been sleeping, but it didn't feel like long. It was exceedingly uncomfortable having his hands and ankles tied, and the smell of the tape was starting to make him nauseous, but at this point, all he could think about was the gnawing hunger in his stomach. How long had it been since he'd eaten? He might not have even eaten when he was kidnapped! And now, they had been driving for what felt like days without even stopping. Every now and then he heard a semi roar by- they were on the highway, and hadn't once taken an exit. He couldn't stand it anymore; he was actually growing faint.

"Heeeeeeey! " he shouted from a small air bubble he had made between his mouth and the tape. He thumped his legs as hard as he could against the side of the car. He scooted slightly, thankful that this car had a lot of room in its trunk, and kicked at the back of the back seat.

He continued this action, encouraged by the first sound of muffled talking he had heard the whole trip, until the car swerved gradually to the right and turned a one-eighty before coming to a slow stop.

He heard the car doors opening and closing, and two sets of feet walking on gravel and grass to the back.

Golden lights came on beside him as the trunk was unlocked, and then a blinding white crack of daylight expanded into a gaping spotlight that made Zane squint his eyes and turn his head away.

"We're five miles from the nearest town," the woman said with squeaky authority. "If you want to eat, you'll have to cooperate."

Zane nodded, still not able to look towards the light, despite the dark blindfold.

"Get out," she said, stepping back to give him room.

Zane hadn't realized how still he had been until this moment. His muscles revolted adamantly against the sudden request for movement by turning to complete jelly. His joints seemed suddenly disconnected. "I- I can't move," he finally admitted through the tape.

The man grabbed the ropes tying Zane's arm and legs like a dead animal and hoisted him out without even a grunt.

"Hurry," the woman ordered, following him to the side of the car not facing the highway.

"There's cactus everywhere," the man said, looking around for a suitable place to put him down.

"Just put him in the back. We'll do the rest there. It's safer anyway."

The man followed the woman's direction, and placed Zane on the leather interior of the car, air conditioning wafting from the door. Zane had gotten some air conditioning, but not much, and the cool air and new-car smell was a welcome reprieve from the stuffiness of the trunk.

The two kidnappers stood outside for a moment, talking with tensely bridled animation.

After a deciding word from the woman, she got in the driver's seat, and the man opened the door of the back, rather than the passenger side as Zane had expected.

His heart leapt into his mouth, thinking of all of the things that that could possibly mean and scooted to the other side.

The man sat down next to him, closed the door and said, "Come here. I'll untie you," taming some of Zane's fears.

Zane offered him his hands as the man looked around in his bag for a knife as the ignition started and they got back on the highway.

Once Zane's hands were free, his aggressively peeled off the tape, stretching his lips and rubbing the left-over adhesive on his lips.

"This is how it's going to work: When we get to El Paso, we'll stop and order some food." The man had a strange lack of collectiveness, as everything was either a moral conundrum or a bother for him. "You and I will stay in the back the entire time. There will be a gun to your chest." He spoke so plainly; He was simply telling Zane what to expect rather than threatening his life. "If you say _anything _to anyone, I'll shoot you... And even you can't stop that."

Zane nodded in acceptance, but his mind was reeling. _"Even me?"_ he thought.


	4. Chapter 4

The actual drive there was surreal. An hour of tension so thick Zane could almost grab it. The man kept his gun at his chest the entire time, tensing up every time they would pass a car. "Keep your head forward," he would say. And Zane obeyed without any real thought.

When finally they arrived in El Paso, it was as if suddenly Zane's awareness came flooding back to him. If he didn't escape, there was no telling what would happen. The professionalism that both kidnappers portrayed was also terrifying. Whatever they were going to do to him, they had done before.

Not quite knowing what he was doing, he blurted out, "Burger King would be nice. We don't have one where we live." He laughed nervously. "Isn't that weird?"

The woman looked emotionlessly at him in the rear-view mirror, and the man stared at him with acute fear and disbelief before exchanging knowing looks to each other.

Suddenly, the woman pulled into an alley and put the car in park. "Michael," she said, signaling for him to follow her out of the car.

_"What are you doing?"_ Zane thought to himself. _"I'm trying to create an emotional connection. They say that works," _he explained. _"Just shut up!"_

Still pointing the gun at Zane, but holding it more discreetly close to himself as they got out into view, he stepped aside and asked, "Yeah?"

"You drive. He needs to be kept concealed."

He nodded, and they passed each other, the man- Michael, apparently- handing her the gun and then adjusting the seat back to sit up front; the woman scooting in next to Zane with a completely unmovable expression, pointing the gun at him solemnly. She went through the bag that was sitting in between them and got out a large strip of tape. "Give me your hand," she said, reaching out impatiently for it.

He reluctantly handed it to her, and she immediately set about to taping their hands together.

He watched her, slightly terrified, but not knowing any reason to be. What could she possibly do?

Satisfied that all was secure, Michael pulled back out onto the road, drove purposefully by a Burger King and into the _next _nearest line at a drive-through- a Taco Bell.

They waited impatiently for two cars ahead of them to place their orders, before finally driving up to the ­­­­speaker.

A perky female voice crackled metallically at them, "Hi. Welcome to Taco Bell. May I take your order?"

Michael suddenly realized how extremely stupid this all was. He cleared his throat tensely and said, "Uh, yeah. Can I get three bean burritos with no onions and, uh, three waters?"

"Will that be all?"

"Yeah." He sucked his lips in uncomfortably.

The rest of that transaction was completed, and he drove forward, careful not to make eye contact with the woman or Zane. "Schakowsky," he suddenly said, not looking back. "Do you have money?"

With is free hand, he abstractedly went through his pockets. "No, Michael. I do not."

The man looked out his window, obviously aggravated.

The woman, hands occupied with the gun and Zane's other hand, pointed with her chin to the bag. "See that front pocket there?"

Zane nodded.

She pointed the gun more securely toward him. "_Slowly _reach into it and take out what's inside."

He flipped the pocket open, pulling the strong Velcro apart and carefully reached into the pocket. His hand was stopped almost immediately by the feel of paper crinkling. He pulled it out and viewed it briefly before handing it to the man. Michael reached into the large, white envelope, filled almost so that it couldn't be closed and pulled out a crisp one-hundred dollar bill, and handed it back to Zane who, with a nod from the woman, put it back in its respective pocket.

The last car pulled away- it was now their turn to receive their order. The woman clasped Zane's hand tightly, pointed the gun closer to him, and whispered, "Don't make a sound." Zane shivered as an unexplainable wave of nausea washed over him.

Zane nodded, but wondered how that would make the least bit difference. The windows were heavily tinted, but all the server in the restaurant would have to do is lean forward slightly and she would see the woman holding a gun to Zane's head. His making a sound wouldn't matter much at that point.

They pulled up to that ominous window, and the perky young woman with a gold nametag that said "Tara" opened the window with a small smile. "Hi," she said, and then, as she viewed the man within the car, she grinned flirtatiously. "How are you doing today?"

"Fine," he said, smiling only as much as he felt he had to.

Tara surveyed him shamelessly, eyeing his lean, but fit muscular body under his tight, dark grey shirt.

He uncomfortably looked anywhere but at the young woman, although Zane could see the flattery was getting through to him as his ears turned red.

"Sorry. All I have is a one-hundred," he said, handing her the bill.

Now was Zane's only chance. For whatever reason, perhaps her infatuation with Michael, Tara had been completely oblivious to the fact that there was even anyone else _in _the car up to this point. He'd have to get her attention somehow, and it'd be now or never.

As she handed Michael the white paper bags, filling the car with smell of fast food, Zane knew that now was his moment. He leaned forward, almost parallel to Michael, and said, "Hey! Help! Their kidn-" but the woman had dropped the gun and gotten her tiny hand over his mouth in an instant, pulling him back firmly into the back seat on top of herself, legs wrapped firmly around his waist, before he could say anything else.

"Sorry? What was that?" Tara asked.

Michael, as soon as he had seen Zane beside him, had thought quickly and turned on the radio. Unfortunately, the volume was down so low, Zane's shouting could easily be differentiated from the low static.

Michael cleared his throat to stall for time. "I said, '...Can I have your number?'" he smiled charmingly, if not a tad sheepishly.

She smiled and giggled. "Sure."

Zane grunted in exasperation. Couldn't she see the two passengers struggling in a death grip in the back?!

The woman grinned as she got Michael's change and wrote her number on the back of his receipt. "Here ya go," she said, leaning forward more than she had to as she completed the transaction.

He flashed his perfect white teeth at her, slightly caught up in what he had to remind himself was a charade.

Once more, Zane thrashed, hitting the woman's head with the back of his own, making her let go. "Help me!" Zane shouted, and his heart lept into his mouth as the girl finally looked toward the back seat. Finally! She had to have seen him!

Not seeing anyone, she blinked confusedly, and went back to smiling at Michael. "See you later."

"Bye," Michael said, driving off in a hurry.

Zane felt sick with disappointment. The woman had looked back- right in his direction!- but seemed to just see right through him.

"You okay, Lilly?" Michael asked, looking at her in the rear-mirror.

_"Lilly?" _Zane thought. How... unfitting. Again. First her size, then her voice, now her name. This woman was just one typecast breaker after another.

"Pull over."

Zane shuddered. The anger in her voice was chilling. He suddenly very much regretted hurting this woman.

Michael obeyed, pulling in between two empty buildings, an obvious sense of fear in his posture, as well.

Lilly looked up from the floor at Zane with odium in her eyes. Her nose was bleeding.

Zane looked around fearfully, looking for anything to protect himself with. Like a godsend, he looked own at the floorboard, and saw the pistol Lilly had dropped. He reached down quickly and picked it up with his free hand.

"Michael!" Lilly screamed, and Michael responded without hesitation or pause. He flung himself back and seemed to simply clutch the gun for a moment.

And then there was stillness.

Zane hardly had time to register anything. It was all so fast. After a moment, he looked at the gun, which, oddly, he found still in his hands. He dropped it with a gasp and backed towards his window, pulling Lilly, who was still taped to him. It was no longer a gun he had been holding in his hand.

Lilly picked it up carefully with her free hand and displayed it further to Zane.

It was now just a clump of mangled metal. The barrel had been imprinted with Michael's hand, as if it had been clay when he squeezed it.

Lilly cut the tape holding them together with a pocket knife in her pocket, and got out of the car, still holding what used to be the gun.

Michael got out of the car as well, and opened Zane's door, making him fall out onto the ground shoulder first. He grabbed his shirt and pulled him effortlessly to his feet, dragging him behind a dumpster where the cars on the street were less likely to see him.

Lilly walked over and stood in front of him. "Do you see this?" She held up the piece of black metal, just barely able to get her finger through the trigger guard it was so bent. "If you _ever _try something like that again, Michael won't hold back, and this'll be your wrist. Do you understand me?" She looked at her partner and nodded. She turned around without another word and walked back toward the car, leaning on the hood.

Without another word, Michael covered Zane's mouth and trapped his arm between his, taking hold of his hand so that he couldn't move, although Zane was so dumb-stricken with fear he didn't even try.

Michael held Zane's hand steady as he separated Zane's right ring finger away from the others.

Up until this point, Zane wasn't sure what was going to happen in this alley. Now, his eyes went wide, and he screamed under Michael's hand, thrashing and trying as hard as he could to get his hand away.

Michael hardly had to put any pressure at all, before the sharp, wet pop and a piercing cry of pain from Zane told him to stop.

Zane's vision faded in and out for a moment and his hands shook. Tears began flooding from his eyes as a pain so intense he felt like he was go to faint paralyzed his entire arm.

Michael let his arm go, letting Zane take hold of his injured hand, and practically pulled him towards Lilly, where she was nonchalantly cleaning the blood from her face. "Put him in the car," she said, not looking at them.

He did so, and started to open the driver's side door, but stopped when she said, "You stay."

He subconsciously gulped and walked over to where Lilly was standing, preparing himself for the worst.

"What the hell was that?" She looked venomously into the man's eyes, not at all daunted by the fact that he was a good foot and a half taller than she.

"What do you mean?" he put his hands on his hips defensively and tilted his head slightly to the side.

"You know exactly what I mean. The Taco Bell girl. You were sloppy, Michael. And that's why this happened." She gestured toward her orange-stained face.

He dropped his head a little.

"I'd report you, but you saved my butt back there with the gun thing," she said, shifting her weight to the other foot. "You're new, I know, but there's no learning curve on this job, Michael. You got that? This kid's dangerous. They all are."

"You mean we all are."

She looked purposefully at him, trying to decide what he meant by that. She decided to dismiss it, and just said, "Put him in the trunk again."

"What about his food?"

She laughed. "I'm not sure I'd give him any even if we could. But actually while we were driving I realized that we can't feed him. We can't risk a cross-contamination."

He nodded. "What do you want me to do?"

She smiled a little, slightly pleased with the thought of reprisal. "Nothing. Put him in the trunk." She walked around him towards the driver's seat, saying, "Just be sure to take care of his hand first."


End file.
